ABSTRACT: This article traces the development of the Canada
Gazette from its origins to the present day, linking its history
with that of Canada. Special attention is paid to the legislation which
has governed the Canada Gazette. Content, indexing, and
some notes about the future of the Canada Gazette form the
rest of the article.

The Canada Gazette is the official newspaper of the
government of Canada. It has been published regularly by the Queen's
Printer since 1841, although its antecedents can be traced back more than
two centuries. In it are published new statutes and regulations, proposed
regulations, decisions of administrative boards and an assortment of
government notices which are required by statute to be published so as to
disseminate this information to the public.

History of the Gazette

The earliest gazettes originated in Italy in the fifteenth century as
newsletters which enjoyed wide circulation throughout Europe. The first
gazette in England was the Oxford Gazette, which published
its first issue on 16 November 1665. At this time the court of Charles II
had moved to Oxford in order to escape the plague. Gazettes were
published concurrently in London and Oxford, but when the court returned
to London early in 1666 the Oxford edition ceased and the publication
became known as the London Gazette, the name it has retained
ever since. In addition to its reputation for accuracy and
authoritativeness, its importance lies in its emergence as the first real
newspaper in England. Prior to the establishment of the Oxford
Gazette, news had been published in the form of a book or booklet.
The Oxford Gazette was a two column half sheet printed on both
sides, establishing a format for news publication which has continued,
with some modifications, to the present day. Both the Oxford
Gazette and the London Gazette were used by the
government to communicate information to the public as well as to exercise
control over the dissemination of news. The Gazettes were
non-partisan and contained no editorial commentary, publishing instead
foreign news and shipping reports.3

In addition to the London Gazette, which is now published
each weekday, there are a number of other Commonwealth gazettes including
the Belfast Gazette, the Edinburgh Gazette, the
New Zealand Gazette, Commonwealth of Australia
Gazette and the Canada Gazette. Each province and
territory of Canada also publishes its own gazette.

History of the Canada Gazette

Pre-Confederation

Upper and Lower Canada

The history of the Canada Gazette is interwoven with that of
the nation and its forerunners date back to the early years of British
rule in Canada. Following the establishment of the Province of Upper
Canada (now Ontario) in 1791, the Upper Canada Gazette was
begun at the instigation of John Graves Simcoe, the newly-appointed
Lieutenant-Governor. It was published for the first time on 18 April 1793
and continued until 1848 or 1849, the exact date of its demise being
uncertain.4 Its status was semi-official in that the
printers were appointed by the government and it published official
notices; however, it also contained general news items and sometimes
anti-government editorials. In the province of Lower Canada (now Quebec),
the Quebec Gazette had begun publication in 1764. It, too,
had semi-official status and continued until 1823, when it was replaced by
the Quebec Official Gazette.

Province of Canada

The Union Act, 1840,5
which took effect on 10 February 1841, united Upper and Lower Canada into
the Province of Canada, with Upper Canada becoming Canada West and Lower
Canada becoming Canada East. On Saturday, 2 October 1841, the
Canada Gazette made its debut, being published "by
authority". It became the official newspaper of the new government,
enjoying a status which had not been held by the Upper Canada
Gazette and only lately by the Quebec Gazette, both of
which it was intended to replace. During its lifetime the government sat
at different locations in the united provinces and for most of these
twenty-six years the Canada Gazette was printed at the same
place as the seat of government. The exception was in 1850 and 1851 when
the government sat in Toronto while the Gazette continued to
be published in Montreal.6 The first issue was very brief,
running to only three pages, and contained a proclamation, two new Acts,
an order in council and two government appointments. One of these
appointments was that of Stewart Derbishire and George Desbarats7 as joint Queen's Printer and Law Printer in and for the
Province of Canada.8

For the first couple of years the publication of new Acts was an important
part of the Canada Gazette and the size of an issue was
usually determined by the number and length of the statutes published
therein. The content of the Gazette soon began to expand to
include other types of information such as selected treaties of the
British government, notices of Royal Assent, proclamations and
regulations, financial statements of chartered banks, corporate notices,
notices of bankruptcy and a variety of miscellaneous notices including the
appointments of notaries and justices of the peace, admissions to the Law
Society of Upper Canada, and appointment of Queen's Counsel. Not
everything was strictly business; a notice dated 26 June 1847 announced
that the wife of the Governor-General, the Countess of Elgin and
Kincardine, would receive ladies at her residence from 3 to 5 p.m. on
Thursdays. The text of new Acts appeared only sporadically after the
mid-1840's, although notices of proclamations remained an important
component of the Canada Gazette.

The Canada Gazette's status was strengthened and confirmed in
1849 with the passage of An Act to provide for the insertion of
certain official and legal notices in the Canada Gazette.9 This statute took effect on 1 October 1849. It substituted
the Canada Gazette for the Upper Canada Gazette
and the Quebec Gazette, both of which were still being
published in spite of their diminished status. Section 1 of the
Act speaks of the circulation of the two regional gazettes as
"limited and local" and that of the Canada Gazette as "great
and co-extensive".

Until 1843 the French-language content was almost negligible. This was
slow to change, but gradually more and more of the Canada
Gazette came to be printed in French, although the English section
always preceded the French. In almost every instance the French version
was a translation of the English. Volume numbering did not commence until
January, 1853; until then there were only consecutive issue numbers.
Extra issues, or "gazettes extraordinaire" were printed as required, for
example, to announce the Royal Assent of new bills, the recall of
Parliament, or the departure of the Governor-General. An index was
published for the years 1841-1844 and there were annual indexes
thereafter.

Post Confederation

On 1 July 1867 the Dominion of Canada was created by merging the two
Canadas (now called Ontario and Quebec) with Nova Scotia and New
Brunswick. The Canada Gazette took note of Confederation:
the issue dated 18 June 1867 printed a proclamation uniting the provinces,
a list of new senators and a notice declaring 1 July 1867 as a "day of
rejoicing". An "extra", dated 3 July 1867, published a list of
appointments made on 1 July by the Governor- General, including the names
of the members of the Queen's Privy Council of Canada, the
Lieutenant-Governors of the four provinces, cabinet and other
appointments. From now on the Canada Gazette would be
printed at Ottawa, the capital of the new dominion.

Publication of Two Concurrent Canada Gazettes,
1867-1869

One result of Confederation was the concurrent publication, until 1869, of
two Canada Gazettes. Both series were published weekly on
Saturdays by Malcolm Cameron10 who had become Queen's
Printer in 1863. The continuing series retained the volume numbering
begun in 1841, while the new series commenced with volume one. To date
the author has not been able to determine the reasons for the overlapping
Canada Gazettes.

Individual issues of the new series were brief, with a strong English
focus, publishing proclamations, parliamentary and government notices, and
orders in council of a general nature. Material from London, such as
notices from Downing Street and information about English schools, was
also included. The continuing series had much larger issues with more
detail and a definite, although not exclusive, focus on Quebec. It
contained proclamations, notices of bankruptcy, sale of real estate, and
corporation, government and parliamentary notices, the majority of which
were concerned with Quebec. The rules of court for Quebec were also
published here. Very occasionally the text of a new statute was published
as a supplement.

The language issue did not die with the union of the Canadas. While the
English content continued to be printed first, the French began to
increase as more information was printed in both languages. Most
government notices and proclamations were printed in English and French,
but not all corporate, bankruptcy and miscellaneous notices. The practice
was to translate items pertaining to Quebec, although this did not happen
in every case.

Two years after Confederation, Parliament passed legislation concerning
the Canada Gazette. An Act respecting the office of
Queen's Printer and the Public Printing11 came into
force on 1 October 1869 and dealt with the appointment, salary and duties
of the Queen's Printer, one of which was the printing and publication of
the Canada Gazette, "the Official Gazette of the Dominion"
(s. 2). Section 3 specified the content of the Canada
Gazette: "All Proclamations issued by the Governor or under the
authority of the Governor in Council, and all official notices,
advertisements and documents relating to the Dominion of Canada, or
matters under the control of the Parliament thereof, and requiring
publication, shall be published in the Canada Gazette, unless some other
mode of publication thereof be required by law." Section 9 gave the
Governor in Council the power to prescribe the "form, mode and condition
of publication of the Canada Gazette". The Canada Gazette
was governed by this Act (cited as the Public Printing
and Stationery Act from 1906) until its repeal by the
Government Organization Act, 1969,12 of which
more will be said later.

Both series continued to publish until 30 October 1869 when the original
series ended. The numbering sequence which began with the new series
remained and has continued to the present day.

One Gazette, 1869-1947

The Canada Gazette continued to publish every Saturday
throughout the first half of this century with very few changes. It
affords an interesting glimpse into a Canada still very much under the
British flag. The death of Queen Victoria in January, 1901 was mourned
with black borders on each page of the issues dated from 23 January to 16
March 1901. An "extra" published on 30 January 1901 announced that court
mourning would continue until 24 January 1902 and directed the public to
wear deep mourning until 6 March 1901, and half mourning until 17 April
1901. Further, there would be no receptions at Government House in Ottawa
until the cessation of court mourning the following year.

Following the creation of Part II in 1947 to publish the text of statutory
instruments and regulations, this part of the Canada Gazette
became Part I, publishing material of a general nature. It is still
published every Saturday with the occasional extra issue as required. The
habit of separating the English and French sections did not die out until
1970 when it was replaced by English and French text in parallel columns,
thus making the Canada Gazette a completely bilingual
publication.

Today's Canada Gazette Part I contains a mixture of
government and parliamentary information. The following list sets out the
more important types of data to be found therein:

Commissions - notices of appeals, decisions, public notices, public
hearings, and commencement of inquiries covering such bodies as the
Canadian International Trade Tribunal (CITT), the Canadian
Radio-Television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC), the National
Energy Board, Competition Tribunal, Copyright Board, Public Service
Commission and the Patented Medicine Prices Review Board

Government House - awards to Canadians, recipients of the Order of
Canada, Canadian bravery decorations

Orders in Council - as required to be published in Part I

Parliament - House of Commons and Senate notices, return of members
elected in federal elections

Government Notices - weekly statement of assets and liabilities of the
Bank of Canada, appointments, various notices made pursuant to statutes,
Consolidated Return of Revenue, Expenses and Changes in Capital and
Reserves of both Canadian and foreign banks

Miscellaneous corporate notices

Supplements are published as required to accommodate large items such as
the monthly statement of assets and liabilities from the chartered banks,
both domestic and foreign; statements of royalties from the Copyright
Board; lists of federally registered insurance companies and fraternal
benefit societies licensed to do business in Canada under the
Insurance Companies Act; statements of assets, liabilities,
income and expenditures of Canadian and foreign insurance companies and
cooperative credit associations; and the annual list of authorized
explosives made pursuant to the Explosives Regulations. One
of the most interesting supplements is the list of unclaimed bank balances
over $100, arranged by name of chartered bank and showing the name of the
depositor and the amount left in seemingly long-forgotten accounts. If
this money is not claimed it reverts to the government of Canada.

Each issue of the Canada Gazette Part I has its own
non-cumulating index, a practice begun with volume 14 in 1880. The early
indexes were very brief and covered very little of the actual content,
while those of today are much more detailed. There are also quarterly
indexes to Part I, but these are non-cumulating and slow to be published.
It is advisable for libraries to retain these indexes, and it would be
desirable for the Queen's Printer to publish a cumulation.

Canada Gazette Part II, 1947-

The antecedents of the Canada Gazette Part II can be traced
back to the early days of World War II and a publication entitled
Proclamations and Orders in Council relating to the War. It
was succeeded in October, 1942 by Canadian War Orders and
Regulations, a weekly publication of the Statutory Orders and
Regulations Division of the Privy Council Office, which contained war
related orders and regulations. In 1945 it was renamed Statutory
Orders and Regulations. The purpose of these three publications
was to recognize the growing importance of subordinate legislation and to
accord it special treatment by virtue of a separate publication.13

Growth in the amount of delegated legislation -- orders in council, rules,
regulations and proclamations -- was significant during the war years and
has not decreased since that time. Between 1932 and 1938, the federal
government approved 23,139 orders in council; between 1939 and 1945 the
number soared to 60,655; in the years immediately following the end of the
war, 1946 to 1952, there were 40,953.14 No specific statute
pertaining to the publication of delegated legislation yet existed and
would not be created until the passage of the Regulations Act,
1950. Those orders which required publication could be found in
the Canada Gazette.

Thus the road was paved for the creation of a permanent series which would
publish delegated legislation. The Canada Gazette Part II
was authorized by P.C. 1946-4876, The Statutory Orders and
Regulations Order, 1947, which was made on 26 November 1946 and
ordered that after 1 January 1947 the Canada Gazette be
published in two parts. Part I was to be called "General" and would
contain "the matter which prior to the said date was published in the
Canada Gazette excepting the matter to the published in Part
II as hereinafter set out." Part II was entitled "Statutory Orders and
Regulations" and was to contain "proclamations, orders, rules and
regulations" as set out in section 4 of the order. Section 6 stated that
"Part II of the Canada Gazette, entitled 'Statutory Orders
and Regulations', shall be published regularly by the King's Printer, on
the second and fourth Wednesday of each month."

This order was subsequently revoked and replaced by P.C. 1946-5355 of 30
December 1946. Section 6(a) directed the Clerk of the Privy Council to
prepare a consolidation of "all such orders, minutes, rules or
regulations" that were in force as of 31 December 1947. This
consolidation was eventually published in 1950 under the title
Statutory Orders and Regulations, Consolidation, 1949 and was
followed by similar editions in 1955 and 1978, with the Canada
Gazette Part II functioning as the updating tool.15

Part II of the Canada Gazette was published for the first
time on Wednesday, 8 January 1947. It did not commence with volume one
but instead continued the numbering sequence begun in 1867, so that the
initial issue was volume 81, number 1. The text of each instrument was
printed in full, together with its registration number and date. Two
non-cumulating tables were printed at the back of each issue. The "Table
of Contents" was arranged by instrument number and provided the title,
name of administering body and page reference, while the "Index to
Statutory Orders and Regulations" had a topical arrangement, also with
page references.

In 1950 Parliament passed the Regulations Act.16 This new statute required the Clerk of the Privy Council to
keep a record of regulations transmitted to him by regulation-making
authorities, the Governor in Council and the Treasury Board. It also
required that all regulations be published in the Canada
Gazette, in English and in French, within 30 days of being made.
Publication in the Canada Gazette was to be considered proof
of a regulation's existence. The Act further provided that regulations be
cited as "Statutory Orders and Regulations" or "S.O.R." followed by the
number. SOR/50-572, which took effect 1 January 1951 pursuant to the new
Act, continued the Canada Gazette in two parts and prescribed
that Part II was to contain regulations as defined in section 2(a) of the
Regulations Act, thus tightening the requirements set out in
The Statutory Orders and Regulations Order, 1947.

At the same time, SOR/50-572 directed the Clerk of the Privy Council to
publish every three months a consolidated index and table of all
regulations made since the last consolidation, together with all
amendments, revocations or other modifications. This index commenced 1
January 1950 and took up where the 1949 Statutory Orders and
Regulations consolidation left off. Its main feature was a "Table
of Statutory Orders and Regulations" which listed new regulations and
amendments to existing ones, giving the name of the enabling Act, name of
the regulation, volume and page reference to the 1949 consolidation (where
applicable) and amendments with page reference to Part II.

In 1972 the Regulations Act was repealed and replaced by the
Statutory Instruments Act.17
Section 10 continued the Canada Gazette as the official
gazette of Canada. The status of the Canada Gazette had been
in doubt since its parent statute, the Public Printing and
Stationery Act, was repealed in 1969 by the Government
Organization Act which made no mention at all of the Canada
Gazette. In his appearance on 16 February 1971 before the House of
Commons Standing Committee on Justice and Legal Affairs, which was
examining the statutory instruments bill, the Hon. John Turner, Minister
of Justice, stated that "the Canada Gazette is recognized as
the official gazette of Canada but this recognition has no statutory
basis ... we are not creating the Canada Gazette by
statute. We are just saying ... 'The Queen's Printer shall continue to
publish the Canada Gazette as the official gazette of
Canada.'"18

The question of the Gazette's status was the subject of a
lively debate in the House of Commons on 8 March 1971, shortly after the
Minister's appearance before the Standing Committee. The opposition
raised the issue of the Gazette, claiming that, since the
repeal of the Public Printing and Stationery Act, it had no
statutory authority. According to the honourable member, the repeal of
this statute had "abolished" the Gazette; while the
Government Organization Act, 1969 continued the office of
Queen's Printer, it did not authorize the printing and publishing of an
official gazette. "I suggest, and the minister himself confirmed this,
that in the course of the preparation of the government reorganization
bill of April, 1969, something was inadvertently done which removed the
statutory authority which gave the Canada Gazette its status as the
official gazette of Canada."19

An examination of Hansard reveals the niceties of the issue.
The Minister of Justice told the House that "This clause [section 10] does
not provide that the Queen's Printer shall continue to publish the Canada
Gazette as the official gazette of Canada; it simply provides it shall be
continued as the official gazette of Canada. At the present time, the
Canada Gazette is recognized as being the official gazette, but this
recognition needs a statutory basis, one which the clause in question will
give to it. There has been no interruption in the authority for the
publication of the gazette."20 Later in the same debate he
said: "The Canada Gazette retains its status as a journal in which
documents needing publicity for validation must be published ...
Authority for the Canada Gazette lies in the fact that it is the Canada
Gazette, not that it is designated as the official gazette. All the
statutes to which the hon. member refers speak of the Canada Gazette. The
legal power is not changed by designating it the official gazette."21 This debate was not resumed as the House moved on to
consider other sections of the bill.

The Statutory Instruments Act was duly passed and remains the
governing statute for the Canada Gazette.22
The Gazette's official status is continued by section 10, and
section 12 permits the Governor in Council to "direct that any statutory
instrument or other document, or any class thereof, be published in the
Canada Gazette" and further directs that the Clerk of the
Privy Council, under the authorization of the Governor in Council, "may
direct or authorize the publication in the Canada Gazette of any statutory
instrument or other document, the publication of which, in his opinion, is
in the public interest." Section 14(1) continued the quarterly
consolidation of regulations and 14(2) made provision for a quarterly
index to Part I.

Because the number of regulations made by the federal government continues
to increase, the importance of the Canada Gazette Part II has
not diminished. Its contents now encompass "all 'regulations' as defined
in the Statutory Instruments Act and certain other classes of
statutory instruments and documents required to be published therein"23
including the proclamations of new Acts. Since January, 1984 it has been
published every second Wednesday, and instead of separate English and
French editions there is one edition with English and French in parallel
columns.

The quarterly cumulative index is now called the "Consolidated Index of
Statutory Instruments" and is perhaps the most valuable index produced by
the federal government next to the "Table of Public Statutes". It
cumulates from 1 January 1955 and contains only those instruments still in
force. Table II, "Table of Regulations, Statutory Instruments (Other than
Regulations) and Other Documents Arranged by Statute" lists all amendments
in force under the short title of regulations which are in turn arranged
alphabetically by name of the enabling Act. Instruments made by other
than statutory authority can be found at the end of this table. Table I
is an alphabetical list of regulations, giving the name of the enabling
statute so that the researcher can then refer to Table II for amendments.
Table III lists those regulations which are exempt from registration and
publication in the Canada Gazette. Fortunately there are
very few and the table takes up no more than one or two pages. Anyone
doing retrospective research should consult back copies of the
"Consolidated Index" for those instruments which were made after January
1, 1955 but are no longer in force.

Special issues are published as required. The most important to date is
"Special Issue 1978", which was published in two volumes on 31 December
1978 in conjunction with the release of the Consolidated Regulations
of Canada 1978, the first revision and consolidation of federal
regulations since 1955.

Canada Gazette Part III, 1974-

The next major change to the Canada Gazette was the creation
of Part III, which was published for the first time on 13 December 1974 in
order to publish public Acts as quickly as possible after receiving Royal
Assent, thus eliminating the long wait between publication of the bill
copies and the sessional volumes of statutes. Prior to 1984 federal
statutes were not published until the session had concluded. Annual
volumes have been published since 1984. The authority for Part III was
SOR/74-652 which amended the Statutory Instruments
Regulations. Unlike the rest of the Canada Gazette,
Part III has always been published irregularly, usually when there were
enough new Acts to warrant another issue. It supersedes the bill copies
as the source for new statutes until the official volume of Acts for the
calendar year is published. Part III does not contain the text of private
statutes which must be used in bill form until the publication of the
annual statute volumes.

Publication in Part III does not necessarily signify that an Act is in
force, since proclamation is frequently required in addition to Royal
Assent. Therefore each issue also contains a non-cumulating "Table of
Proclamations" covering Acts which have been proclaimed in force during
the time period covered by that specific issue.

Until very recently Canada Gazette Part III included two
other very useful tables which were published under separate cover from
the new Acts and the "Table of Proclamations". The "Table of Public
Statutes" is an alphabetical listing of Acts in force since 1907 together
with section by section amendments to those Acts and notes about coming
into force. Statutes not consolidated in the Revised Statutes of
Canada 1927, 1952, 1970 and 1985 are listed as well. A "Table of
Acts and the Ministers responsible for their administration" was published
under the same cover as the "Table of Public Statutes", allowing for easy
identification of administering departments.

The Canada Gazette Part III dated August 25, 1993 carried the
announcement that both these tables would cease to be published with Part
III, citing the high cost of printing as the reason. This decision has
not resulted in the demise of the tables, which are of great value to the
researcher. Instead, they are now published independent of Part III by
the Department of Justice. The "Table of Public Statutes" is also
published with the annual bound volume of the statutes. There has been
talk of discontinuing Part III because the statutes are now published
annually and "assented to" Acts were introduced in 1990. The original
reason for creating Part III no longer exists. So far this has not
happened and Part III continues to be published.

The author wishes to thank Michel LeClerc, Regulatory Analyst, Department
of Fisheries and Oceans, and Elizabeth Deavy, formerly Official
Publications Specialist, National Library of Canada, for generously
sharing their expertise on this subject.

[3] P.M. Handover, A History of the London Gazette
1665-1965 (London: H.M.S.O., 1965), pp. 2-12.

[6] Olga B. Bishop, Publications of the Government
of the Province of Canada 1841-1867 (Ottawa: National Library of
Canada, 1963), p. 58.

[7] Stewart Derbishire (1794?-1863), an Englishman,
pursued a variety of careers including soldier, lawyer and journalist
before coming to Canada in 1838 to gather intelligence for Lord Durham,
the governor general of British North America, concerning the 1837
rebellion in Lower Canada. His connection with government officials led
to his appointment in 1841 as Queen's Printer, a post he held until he
died.

George-Paschal Desbarats (1808-1864) was a French Canadian who, unlike
Derbishire, had a solid grounding in the printing trade, having entered
his family's printing business when he was eighteen. His commissions
included the Journals of the Legislative Council of Lower
Canada. He and Stewart Derbishire were named Queen's Printer in 1841.
Following Derbishire's death, Desbarats shared his responsibilities with
Malcolm Cameron until his own death in 1864.

[8] Section 41 of the Union Act, 1840
specified that the legislative records of the Province of Canada were to
be kept in English only. Translations were permitted but were not to be
housed with the records of the Legislature nor would they have the force
of an original record. Prov. C. 1841, c. 11, passed in the
following year by the Parliament of the Province of Canada, permitted the
Governor to appoint "one proper and competent person, versed in legal
knowledge and having received a classical French education, and possessing
a sufficient knowledge of the English language" to translate the statutes
of the Province, and any applicable Imperial statutes, into French. This
is the authority for English and French Queen's Printers. However, the
language provision in the Union Act, 1840 remained in force
until its repeal by 1848, c. 56 (U.K.).

[10] Malcolm Cameron (1808-1876) was born in Lower Canada
of Scottish parentage. A businessman and politician, he held cabinet
posts in pre-Confederation governments before succeeding Stewart
Derbishire as Queen's Printer in 1863. He held this post until 1869 when
Georges-Edouard Desbarats (1838-1893), the son of George-Pashal
Desbarats, was appointed Canada's first official printer.

[22] In April 1985, Bill C-84 An Act to provide for
the review, registration, publication and parliamentary scrutiny of
regulations and other documents and to make consequential amendments to
other Acts was introduced in the House of Commons by the Minister
of Justice. This bill would repeal the Statutory Instruments
Act and replace it with a new Regulations Act.
Should this bill become law, it would be the governing legislation for
the new Canada Gazette.